Year in Review: Dance

Dance critic Margaret Putnam picks the 10 best local performances of 2012, with some extra nods thrown in.

Like a bellows, the dance world expands and contracts, expands and contracts, spurred on by opportunities, whims, inspiration, the need to create, the need to share. The local community has experience its share of change—companies falling by the wayside, others picking up the slack, but the real change this year is: Movies. Or to be accurate, dance filmed for movie theaters.

Even within the category of dance films, there are two very different genres. The first is the ground breaking Pina, Wim Wenders' Oscar-nominated 3-D documentary that brings the audience face-to-face with wild, intense dancers. We get the same in-your-face experience in Matthew Bourne's equally intense Swan Lake, also in 3-D.

But what you are going to be seeing in abundance will be dance filmed live in performance and relayed to movie theaters around the world. The opera world caught onto that a few years ago, and now dance companies are following suit. The somber Nederlands Dans Theater offered a grim Rite of Spring, two clever "Black and White Ballets," and an even more clever Swan Song, where grand, moving staircases shouted "danger." That was in November, and on its heels came the Bolshoi Ballet's Pharaoh's Daughter and two Nutcrackers—one from the Kirov and the other the Royal Ballet Nutcracker (as though we don't have enough Nutcrackers here). Expect a huge spate of dance films next spring.

Popcorn anyone? You don't even have to get dressed up. The challenge will be to find out when they are showing.

Here are my 10 favorite local performances. You can also click on the slideshow icon underneath the photo box above and view the list as a slideshow presentation.

3. Baroque Music and Dance in London and Versailles, New York Baroque Dance Company, presented by Dallas Bach Society at Southern Methodist University, Caruth Auditorium, Dallas (Feb. 13)

This company always makes a compelling case for reinstating the aristocracy, whether it is French or English. We got a hint of English reserve and French charm, displayed by shy glimpse, a dropped silk handkerchief, a fan held to the cheek.

The company's Architecture of Loss generated either a love or hate reaction, and there didn't seem to be an in-between. The well-honed, ballet-trained dancers brought power to simple movements in a work that was both somber and abstract, making a nice contrast to the circus atmosphere of Underland.

Ben Stevenson captures the tempest-toss turmoil of Ibsen's play with a Peer reckless and yearning in Lucas Priolo, and likable for all his callous acts. But much of the drama came when Peer is caught in a maelstrom of drunken orgies, wild village dances and mayhem in a crowded asylum.

This company likes nothing better than to let loose, and that it does in Zack Law Ingram's Phoenix, where ferocity meets danger, or in a different mood of saucy, jazzed up energy in Rennie Harris's Thinking of You.

Showing off its range of styles, Meadows Dance Ensemble tackled classical ballet with aplomb in Dr. Mel A. Tomlinson's Le Coeur de Ballet (the heart of ballet) while shifting to wired-up nerve in Billy Siegenfeld's Getting There. It was all late-night, drop-your-guard feel in Bruce Wood's Zing a Little Song, supported by live music.

9. The Trace of Purple Sadness, in Teatro Dallas' 15th International Theatre Festival at South Dallas Cultural Center (Feb. 15)

With the clever use of video transforming the body of dancer/choreographer Ximena Garnica into shapes that sometimes become not even human, we understand what power lighting, video and sound can add to dance. Illusions flowed seamlessly from one tiny gesture to the next, some of it quite magical.

If Matthew Posey's Perro y Sangre (Dog and Blood) — about the young Hemingway and his wife caught in a dangerous village — turned out to be a bit murky, at least the acting and fierce flamenco dancing kept you riveted. And the puppet dog was so menacing he almost stole the show.

Although it does not fit in with the top ten local dance events, Houston Ballet's "Made in America" has to be mentioned as the best thing I saw all year (May 31 at the Wortham Theater Center, Houston). The childlike innocence of Mark Morris' Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes contrasted to the edgy intensity of See(k) with its bold and striking phrasing and long-suspend counter-weight holds. And then there was Balanchine's Theme and Variations. One word for it: sublime. Here's my review.

And here are the top three dance films I saw:

Pina, directed by Wim Wenders, documentary, Feb. 3. Dance and film became brilliant allies in Pina, thanks to the introduction of 3D. Dancers loomed spectacularly close, whether on stage, riding on a suspended monorail, or sliding down an industrial landfill. Add to this choreographer Pina Bausch's gift for theater and tantalizing images that suggest, not state, meaning.

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, March 21. Filmed live at Sadler's Wells in London in 3D, Bourne's version is testosterone-charged and harrowing from start to finish, thanks to buzz-cut, bare-chested swans, their threatening leader and a court—circa 1950—full of intrigue and corruption. No wonder the Prince discovers that love—true to the Romantic era—is unattainable.

Nederlands Dans Theater, Nov. 24. For a heavy dose of northern European dire sensibility, we get our share in four works filmed live and in high definition on stage in the National Theater in London. Rite of Spring could not have been more dour, but the high energy of the Jiri Kylian's two "Black and White Ballets" and their dream like qualities offered a welcome sparkle.

◊ Margaret Putnam has been writing about dance since 1980, with works published by D Magazine,The Dallas Observer, The Dallas Times Herald, The Dallas Morning News, The New York Times, Playbill, Stagebill, Pointe Magazine and Dance Magazine.

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